29 July, 2012

If the universe was 10 years old...

An Evolving Perspective | Inside Singularity University | Big Think:

With respect to the cosmos, mankind has just been born. Hypothetically, if our 14 billion-year-old universe were scaled down to just 10 years (for the sake of comparison), dinosaurs would have been extinct 17 days ago, our earliest relative Lucy would have been playing around on the Savannah 19 hours ago, modern humans would have first appeared 80 minutes ago, the birth of Jesus just 46 seconds ago, and the declaration of independence would have been signed a mere 5 seconds ago! Think about that for a moment: what does 5 seconds mean to you in the scope of 10 years?

In the scheme of things it’s totally insignificant, yet throughout this glorious history of ours we time and time again think we have it all figured out. From the notion that the earth is flat, to the belief that we are the center of the solar system, we have this anthropomorphic tendency to think we know more than we actually do. In 1900, the esteemed scientist Lord Kelvin proclaimed “there is nothing new to be discovered in physics.” This sentiment was echoed by several other experts of his time, yet little did they know, science was on the brink of discovering both the theory of special relativity and quantum mechanics - phenomena that totally shattered our preconceived notions of the universe.